QRZ Call Sign Lookup

Benton Harbor Lunchbox in!

My new "Sixer", the Heathkit HW-29a 6 meter transceiver

I have come to own a fantastic little piece of amateur radio history! The nifty little “Benton Harbor Lunchbox”, a Heathkit HW-29 “Sixer”. It didn’t come with the microphone but hopefully I’ll be able to get one of those as well, if not I guess I can always try and wire something up myself from a different mic.

When I heard this rig was coming in I began to do a bit of reading on Heathkit and they really were an amazing company for the time, talk about DIY… they set a generation on the path to the “Knack” and probably launched more than one engineering degree. The company has changed hands several times and hasn’t made kits since 92’s ( http://goo.gl/hxfbT ) but at their height Heathkit made kits for just about every conceivable kind of electronic gear not the least of which was for ham radio.

There has been speculation that Heathkit may again make kits for the amateur radio enthusiast, I fired off an email to Heathkit’s current director of kits and I will update later if I get a response.

So… the great adventure begins with a new piece of gear, can I get onto six meters and make a contact? Stay tuned for more to come.